Both stock and commodity markets have been stunned in the first couple of weeks of the New Year by a sharp decline in prices, which has surprised investors. However, with Fed policies since 2008 unprecedented, investors get surprised by a lot these days. We’re in uncharted waters, but there are reasons for thinking that the […]

It looks increasingly likely that David Cameron will produce a modest list of “reforms” at the next EU meeting in February, after which some time next summer the British people will be asked to express their view on whether to leave the European Union. The possibility of “Brexit” appears full of risk, a fact that […]

Saudi Arabia and Iran lurched into a dangerous situation last week, with Saudi Arabia executing a Shia cleric and Iranian militants the attacking the Saudi embassy, which has now been closed. The United States is inevitably involved, with troops in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet it’s difficult to see what vital U.S. interests are at […]

Imagine a game of Monopoly(™ Parker Brothers) in which the money supply for each player was infinite. You would see a glut of houses on all available spaces, followed in due course by a glut of hotels. Players would never go bankrupt, and all available spaces would be built until they could not physically hold […]

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, in an exercise of warmist wishful thinking a few weeks ago, warned banks and by extension energy companies of the problem of “stranded” assets, left without value by environmental regulation. Naturally, this was just part of the threats and bluster designed to change behavior ahead of the Paris global […]

Over 200 nations signed a “climate change” regulation deal in Paris last weekend. Conversely Mike Froman, the U.S. trade representative, called this week for the Doha Round of free trade talks to be abandoned, as they were going nowhere – his view presumably reflects the official position of the Obama administration. No contrast more clearly […]

The COP-21 global climate talks ended this weekend, with a treaty that won’t have much practical effect. Yet regulations to combat “climate change” have already inflicted trillions of dollars of economic damage and there seems no prospect of ending their depredations. In other areas, the regulatory state set up since the 1960s expands steadily, with […]

The IMF has allowed the Chinese renminbi to become part of its Special Drawing Right from next October, with a weighting of 10.92%, the third largest after the dollar and the euro. China and India are both now growing much faster than the West, and their greater populations mean that their output will overwhelm the […]

Mauricio Macri’s surprise victory in Argentina last week has brought wild optimism to the Argentine markets, with the Merval index of Argentine stocks up 55% since late September. Yet Argentina’s sorry track record since 1943 and Macri’s lack of a Congressional majority suggest his chances of a long-term turnaround in Argentine economic fortunes are somewhere […]

The Cato Institute Annual Monetary Conference last week clarified my thought processes, and has solidified my conviction that the 21st Century economic malaise that has affected the United States and most rich countries has two causes: monetary policy and regulation. Questions that have puzzled me, notably why we have no inflation, have found potential answers, […]